News Deportation of an 89 year old nazi

Why is it that a nazi soldier following orders gets punished? He was following orders, if he didn't then he would be likely killed. So is this really a no win-win situation, for him and many nazis that were sentenced in the past?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090415/ap_on_re_us/demjanjuk [Broken]

CLEVELAND – John Demjanjuk was released from federal custody Tuesday evening, just hours after six immigration officers removed the accused Nazi death camp guard from his suburban home in a wheelchair, authorities said. Federal officials had taken Demjanjuk to a federal building in downtown Cleveland, but the 89-year-old retired autoworker's impending return to Germany was halted when three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of deportation.

Staff: Mentor

Yes, it is a no win situation, but he gets punished for the same reason any murderer gets punished: he's a murderer.

You are, btw, assuming he was a normal person, forced to do it as opposed to being an ideologue who believed in the Nazi cause. But even if you are right, millions of normal Germans allowed those atrocities to happen when collectively they could have stopped them.

I can only hope if I was in that situation, that I would have the courage to point my gun at my superior officer instead of at the captives.

Why is it that a nazi soldier following orders gets punished? He was following orders, if he didn't then he would be likely killed. So is this really a no win-win situation, for him and many nazis that were sentenced in the past?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090415/ap_on_re_us/demjanjuk [Broken]

There was a choice - fight for the other side.

This should serve as a reminder that there is no justification for war crimes. Even sixty+ years after the fact, the world will still be watching.

This should serve as a reminder that there is no justification for war crimes. Even sixty+ years after the fact, the world will still be watching.

I believe there was no other side at that time. Nazis were running concentration camps years before Normady. Plus Nazis invented propaganda, and people succumbed to group think. German military was hardcore, so your job as a soldier is to obey orders without question. Mafia kind of psychology.

I believe there was no other side at that time. Nazis were running concentration camps years before Normady. Plus Nazis invented propaganda, and people succumbed to group think. German military was hardcore, so your job as a soldier is to obey orders without question. Mafia kind of psychology.

I believe there was no other side at that time. Nazis were running concentration camps years before Normady. Plus Nazis invented propaganda, and people succumbed to group think. German military was hardcore, so your job as a soldier is to obey orders without question. Mafia kind of psychology.

I'm not trying to defend this guy, what he did was wrong.

The Nazi's didn't invent propaganda. It has been around since recorded history.

Yes, I would say partially. I forgot about Abu Garib. I still doubt over the effectiveness of UN war crimes or just UN in general.

There were a number of alleged war crimes involving Allied personnel that were investigated by the Allied powers and that led in some instances to courts-martial. Other incidents are alleged by historians to have been crimes under the law of war in operation at the time, but that for a variety of reasons were not investigated by the Allied powers during the war, or they were investigated and a decision was taken not to prosecute.

But even if you are right, millions of normal Germans allowed those atrocities to happen when collectively they could have stopped them.

It's all well and good saying that in retrospect, but at the time this would have been an incredibly difficult thing to do. After all, how many people are willing to stand up and put themselves and their family's life on the line? If you turn a gun on a superior in Nazi Germany, you will most certainly be killed, along with your family. Remember that at the time Hitler made it perfectly legal to shoot any worker who went on strike let alone someone who rebelled against him!

It's easy enough to look back and say that there were millions of people who sat back and let this happen, but let's remember that at the time Germany was in depression (fuelled by the American depression), had a lot of Communism which the people didn't like, and was generally a beaten country who was not even permitted to build her own army (by the treaty of Versailles, which many Germans hated), and whom had no sense of pride, nationalism or anything else. Hitler offered a way out of this.

Before people start attacking me, note that I'm not condoning anything that the Nazi party did, but I'm just saying that one needs to consider the background to a situation instead of just looking back with 21st century eyes at a situation that they find hard to comprehend.

It's easy enough to look back and say that there were millions of people who sat back and let this happen, but let's remember that at the time Germany was in depression (fuelled by the American depression), had a lot of Communism which the people didn't like, and was generally a beaten country who was not even permitted to build her own army (by the treaty of Versailles, which many Germans hated), and whom had no sense of pride, nationalism or anything else. Hitler offered a way out of this.